Securing a data set on allegations of sexual abuse made against former disc jockey, Jimmy Savile

This project, awarded under an ESRC call for ‘Urgent’ research, aimed to secure data that might otherwise be lost, relating to allegations made against the former DJ, Jimmy Savile. The initiative for the project came from a lawyer and writer who is a former resident of Duncroft School (from whence the initial allegations against Savile emanate), and whose blogging activity under the name of ‘Anna Raccoon’ has generated a substantial body of related correspondence and contacts which provide and could lead to information not yet in the public domain. We aimed to collate and archive Anna Raccoon’s blog posts, comments on these and to interview key staff and former residents from Duncroft School. The data gathered was digitally archived and made available to other researchers. It is likely to be of interest to social and cultural historians, criminologists, lawyers and social workers amongst others.

The research team consists of Mark Smith and Steve Kirkwood from Social Work, Clare Llewellyn from Informatics and Ros Burnett, a criminologist from the University of Oxford.